Agenda item

To present the Budget Scrutiny Task Group Findings report for adoption by the Committee.

The Chair opened the discussion by expressing gratitude to all Members who had contributed to the work of the Budget Scrutiny Task Group. In introducing the report, the Chair stated that, although some progress had been made as a result of the three-year settlement and certain improvements to core funding, these developments represented only an initial step. The Chair emphasised that such measures remained insufficient to compensate for the significant reductions in service funding experienced over many years and decades. The Council therefore continued to operate in an extremely difficult financial environment. The Chair noted that the budget had been presented in a revised format, which placed an increased responsibility upon the Committee to reconsider its approach to budget scrutiny in order to maintain best practice. The revised approach, in the Chair’s view, provided an opportunity to address organisational silos and to support more strategic cross departmental working than had previously been undertaken. The Chair commended the work of the Children and Young People service, which had achieved a significant reduction in the use of agency staff, lowering related expenditure by half within a two-year period, and had developed new proposals to counter the effects of privatisation within contracts. The Chair expressed the hope that similar approaches would be adopted more widely across the organisation. Early indications of comparable developments in Adult Social Care had been referenced, and further analysis was expected as part of the Quarter 3 Finance Report in February 2026. The Chair stressed that it was essential for the Committee to maintain a very close focus on the impact of financial decisions upon residents. The quarterly finance reports scheduled before May 2026, and thereafter, would be integral to this monitoring process.

Having introduced the report, the Chair then moved on to invite questions and comments from the Committee in relation to the Budget Scrutiny Task Group Findings Report, with the following comments and issues discussed:

• As an initial point, members stated that the report had been both fair and reasonable and commented that the conclusions had been particularly well summarised.

• A Member expressed the view that the Committee had not achieved meaningful scrutiny outcomes, stating that the Committee had not been provided with the appropriate information required to contribute effectively. The Member noted that, in response to the current year’s overspend, Cabinet had approved a recommendation to halt non-essential expenditure. The Member stated that the Committee had not been given any opportunity to scrutinise what constituted non-essential expenditure, nor whether such expenditure reductions represented genuine savings or simply deferrals into the next financial year. The Member further stated that the Committee had not been able to scrutinise the overall change in spending arrangements or the use of strategic Community Infrastructure Levy (SCIL) funding. Additionally, the Member noted that the spending power of the Council had been presented as increasing by 9.9%. The Member questioned the accuracy of this figure, observing that it included an assumption that the Council would adopt the Government’s recommended 5% increase in Council Tax. The Member noted that officers had initially advised that 1/3 of the 9.9% increase had been attributable to the Council Tax rise, whereas the current report indicated that 40% of the increase derived from the Council Tax uplift. The Member further stated that the report had not clarified that the Council’s overspend for Quarter 2 had been estimated at £9 million, driven primarily by temporary accommodation pressures and costs relating to Adult Social Care. The Member noted that by Quarter 3 the overspend had increased to £12.5 million, representing an increase of £3.5 million. The Member sought clarification from officers as to whether this represented a recurring overspend arising from ongoing financial pressures such as increased employee costs, including the rise in National Insurance contributions imposed nationally. The Member argued that, if such pressures were recurrent, the 9.9% spending power improvement had already been diminished substantially.

In response, the Chair provided clarification that all the matters raised by the Member, except for the final point concerning the change between Quarter 2 and Quarter 3, had been discussed during the Budget Scrutiny Task Group meetings. The Chair explained that timing challenges existed between the scheduling of budget scrutiny and the availability of the Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 financial reports, meaning the Committee could only scrutinise the information available at the time of presentation. The Chair reiterated that the Committee had acknowledged that the Council remained in a highly vulnerable financial position. The Quarter 3 Report, due to be received in February 2026, would provide the Committee with the opportunity to scrutinise the increase in overspend between the two quarters, an increase which the Chair confirmed had been influenced in part by the rise in National Insurance contributions. The Chair stated that the Committee would return to these issues at the February 2026 meeting, where Members would be able to revisit the questions raised.

• Another Member stated that the financial settlement did not address the systemic financial challenges faced by Brent and by other local authorities nationally. The Local Government Association (LGA) had described the settlement as a ‘sticking plaster’ which did not provide a sustainable solution. The Member requested that this concern be noted formally on the record, emphasising the precarious financial context and the need for improved national policy that recognised the substantial pressures faced by local government.

• As a further issue highlighted, a  Member further stated that the Committee had not been provided with sufficient detail about Council expenditure to enable it to identify potential areas for savings or to contribute meaningfully to discussions regarding how material overspends might be mitigated. In response, the Chair reported that the Quarter 3 Report, to be presented in February 2026, would include early indications of departmental spending, along with identification of the service areas responsible for the overspend. The Chair confirmed that the relevant departments had already been requested to attend the upcoming meeting so that Members could question them directly regarding their expenditure, the causes of overspend, and the actions being taken to manage financial pressures. The Chair stated that they had already anticipated the risk areas and had taken steps to ensure appropriate officer attendance at the February 2026 meeting.

In seeking to bring consideration of the item to a close, the Chair thanked officers and members for their contributions towards the discussion of the Budget Scrutiny Task Group Findings Report. As a result of the outcome of the discussion, it was RESOLVED:

(1)  That the Budget Scrutiny Task Group Findings report be agreed and submitted to Cabinet and Full Council as part of the budget setting process.